1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surgical apparatus having a sensor to obtain information about the states of a surgical instrument.
2. Description of the Related Art
Endoscopic surgery has been widely used because of its noninvasive feature without incising a patient's body mainly to approach a diseased organ. As a surgical instrument used in such an endoscopic surgery, there are energy instruments, such as a high-frequency surgical instrument and an electric scalpel, for cutting and coagulation by using a high-frequency wave or current. These energy instruments can control bleeding, and do not require a large force for cutting, and have been widely used for surgical operations including endoscopic surgery. Some of these energy instruments are provided with a sensor to obtain information about the states of a surgical instrument.
For example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2000-227367 discloses the technique in a master-slave operation system, in which an operation unit attached to a master arm detects the motion of the arm, detected signals are input to an electric scalpel and an arm drive, and an electric scalpel provided with a sensor using an optical fiber is driven to cut and remove a part of an diseased organ.